PUNCTURED AT THE EMIRATES

 

(Image taken from Sky Sports)

Last time around, United faced Arsenal relatively early on in the Premiership season, and beat them 2-1 at Old Trafford. The first half was an absolute disaster from a United POV but still, we got the job done with a late turnaround and a dumb Arsenal og. Later on in the season we actually found ourselves with less of a problem at the Emirates Stadium where we won 3-1 without much resistance from Arsene Wenger's crew who were fading away into underachievement yet again. Neither side was to claim the title that season and the joke with the Gunners is that they no longer have enough of an edge to win trophies but still, matches between the two sides are always interesting.

This season well we had already beaten the Gunners 1-0 at Old Trafford. Since then we'd risen to the top of the league and for a lot of the season it looked as though Arsenal were once again going to be our main rivals for the title. Recently however they'd started to fall to bits and the question now was, would this Premiership match at the Emirates Stadium prove to be the end of their title campaign? United went 4-4-2 for this one, Nani right mid, Carrick and Anderson centre mid with Rooney and Hernandez up front. While I was slightly concerned about how this match would play out, the fact is, in a way would could afford to lose this one, not that we're ever in the business of losing.

Unfortunately for us, the Gunners certainly weren't in the business of rolling over. They came at us from the start and didn't give us any room to breathe in the early stages of the match, forcing United to rely on counter attacks. United went on to have a decent spell midway through the match but the fact is, we were doing well to keep a clean sheet, in fact Arsenal reckoned they should have had a penalty after a Vidic handball. The penalty wasn't given though and the teams came into half time goalless. So much for burying Arsene Wenger's crew though. At half time I was quite happy to take a goalless draw but who knew what would happen in the second half.

United were given a freekick early on in the second half but it proved to be nothing the Arsenal goalie couldn't handle. Then in the 56th minute Robin van Persie surged down the right flank before feeding Aaron Ramsey who gave the home side the lead. United weren't quite done and indeed brought on not one but two fresh strikers as the game went on and even had a penalty claim of our own but we were never quite able to find the net. OK, so neither could Arsenal for a second time but let's face it, they didn't need to. I shouldn't honestly be surprised at this result and surely we can't blow the title now but it certainly makes things...interesting.

Elsewhere, Chelsea faced Spurs at Stamford Bridge. Sandro opened the scoring for Spurs and it was the visitors that largely had the edge in the first half but Frank Lampard levelled the match for the Blues just before half time. In the second half Chelsea started to take over the game a bit more. That'll be of cold comfort to Spurs fans and Harry Redknapp though who questioned the officials' intelligence in the run in to Soloman Kalou's late winner. That means that United are still top of the Premiership but we are now only three points ahead of nearest challengers Chelsea and they are our next Premiership visitors. As I said earlier, interesting.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Inverness CT at Pittodrie in the SPL. Well the Dons were desperate for a win here and were running the show in the first half, the only serious Caley opportunity being turned into a counter attack, yet they just couldn't hit thet net before half time. Well Caley put on a better display in the second half but still the Dons had the edge and it was Peter Pawlett that eventually scored, getting his first goal for the Dons. That left the Dons still 10th in the SPL but more importantly twelve points ahead of Hamilton and therefore, they have garunteed themselves another season in the SPL with three games to spare.

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